Without Trust There is Nothing
by beaglesplus7
Summary: What happens when the five travelers seem to forget that the best way to handle a crisis is to trust in each other, will they be able to resolve their differences and figure it out before Zane gets arrested as a spy.  Post S4E09
1. Please Go Away Now

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words the rest belongs to SyFy. The helicopter I borrowed from the book Eureka: Substitution Method by Cris Ramsey**.

Fargo and Jack walked down the hallway of section 4 in a bad mood and trying to pretend they didn't smell like a combination of perfume, sewer and spoiled milk. Both thinking the brother and sister team they'd just left needed some serious family counseling to deal with their out of control sibling rivalry before being allowed to share a lab again.

This was the seventh incident they'd had to deal with in three days and as far as they were concerned by far the worst. The two Drs. Claypool had begun arguing over which direction to take their study of the effect of scent on the human mind, the argument had quickly escalated into a full blown fight. When Fargo and Carter had arrived the two had been hurling vials filled with different scents at each other like they were having a snowball fight. The fumes had gotten into the air vents and spread, scientists all up and down the corridor had been streaming out of their own labs trying to escape the horrendous smell.

"This is the last time Jo goes on vacation." Fargo told Carter clearly frustrated. "If it wasn't already Friday I'd call her and tell her to get back here." Fargo was pretty sure he'd shove a side his own personal feelings about the whole Jo/Zane thing and play matchmaker himself if it meant she wouldn't take off again. Temporarily forgetting he'd encouraged her when she'd told him she was leaving so she could make a few changes in her life, namely moving on from Zane.

Jack snorted thinking "_I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."_ To Fargo he sarcastically said "she only took three days off. I'm sure she thought _you'd_ be able to hold the place together for three days." Privately Jack knew Jo had really needed the time away from Eureka and a certain bad boy scientist, he just wished she would have picked a different week to skip town. This had been the first warm week of the year and Eureka's residents had wanted to celebrate this by wreaking as much havoc as they could. It was all he and Andy could do to keep up with what was going on in town, having to repeatedly come up here to GD to handle one crisis after another for Fargo was getting on his nerves.

"What's that supposed to mean? You're the Sheriff it's your job to keep people from killing one another." Fargo replied managing to sound both offended and condescending at the same time. He was getting tired of Jack and the rest of them acting like he was incapable of doing his job without them being there to clean up the mess. _"Seriously the only one that gives me any credit for anything is Jo"_ he thought bitterly.

Jack just rolled his eyes and let out an impatient "Hmpff." He'd never get Fargo to understand that part of being in charge meant you had to handle the occasional dispute between employee's. Granted it was part of Jo's job but with her gone Fargo should be handling it himself. Jack was feeling too grumpy to admit that some of those incident's, like the one they'd just left, had gotten out of control quickly.

Fargo heard the sound Jack had made and it only increased his bad mood. Since his favorite whipping post Larry wasn't around to take it out on he decided to get a dig in on the Sheriff. "Don't blame me if your let's all be reasonable and talk about it tactics aren't nearly as effective as Jo's try it and die stare."

Jack decided he'd had enough of Fargo for the day "I'm going home to change. How about we try something new and see if you can manage to maintain peace and harmony around here for more than an hour by yourself."

Jack turned down a side hallway before Fargo had a chance to reply. Neither of them had thought to call Jo's second in command Clayton all week. The same man who was sitting in the security room watching the video feeds laughing at the two and thinking _"Lupo is gonna love this."_

**The NLW Lab**

Fargo's mood had not improved since he and Jack had parted ways but he had one more thing to do before he could leave for the day. Earlier Global had developed some stealth helicopters for moving troops around but this newer combat version was supposed to be smaller, faster and more maneuverable. The steering mechanism Zane had designed for the sky cruiser was now supposed to have been modified to work in the aircraft. Parrish was supposed to be coordinating with the DOD to outfit it with various lethal and nonlethal interchangeable weapons. Fargo needed to make sure everything was ready before Jo brought the test pilot back with her this weekend.

Apparently Jo knew the man General Mansfield was sending to test the new helicopter. She'd seemed pretty happy when she'd learned who the test pilot was, well happy and a little nervous. She'd volunteered to pick Asher Maddox up in Portland and bring him here to Eureka telling Fargo he was an old friend of hers. After everything that had happened during Jo's time off he didn't want anything to go wrong on her return. Jo was going to be angry enough as it was.

Letting out an unhappy sigh Fargo entered the one lab he hated visiting without Jo at his side. The greeting he received from his two least favorite scientists only increased his dislike of the two.

Parrish's head snapped up and his face pinched "What in the hell is that smell?" Both Parrish and Zane turned giving Fargo identical looks of shock and disgust.

"_Perfect, just the way to cap off the week."_ Fargo thought angrily _"Nothing like giving Zane ammo to take his sarcastic pot shots at me with."_

"Fargo must have a hot date tonight he seems to be trying out a new cologne. Although you have to wonder _what_ exactly would be dating him smelling like that." Zane piped up.

"_Yep right on cue"_ Fargo thought his mood going from bad to worse.

"Hopefully it's with a large bottle of tomato juice and a shower" Parrish quipped "I've been sprayed by a skunk and smelled better." Both men were now trying hard to not breathe in or laugh around their boss.

It was Parrish that recovered first, they had problems and it was about time Fargo had decided to make an appearance. "So happy you decided to finally get around to us. It's only been an hour since I called Larry to report the theft."

"I am not in the mood for comments from the peanut gallery today. I came down here…" Fargo started before the last part of Parrish's statement registered. "What theft? I haven't been told about any theft, good lord it didn't have anything to do with the Falcon helicopter did it." He asked starting to panic a little.

"No someone stole the blueprints for the RSS device. You're precious helicopter is just fine." Parrish supplied.

"Is that all, the thing never worked right any way" Fargo said dismissively. He didn't care about anything other than keeping General Mansfield off his back for a while. "You probably just misplaced them, have you looked around."

"_Someone save me from this hell. How exactly did this incompetent idiot get to be Director?"_ Parrish thought bitterly. To Fargo he asked "When's Lupo getting back? This place is going to hell in a hand basket without her." He wasn't exactly fond of Jo Lupo but he did respect her, Fargo he felt neither sentiment for. "Of course I looked around, they're not here. You need to call Lupo and get her back here."

Zane did not share Parrish's opinion about bringing Jo back to town. He needed a break, every time he saw her he thought about when he'd kissed her and what it would feel like to do it again. He did not want to go there, everything about Jo since that day in Carter's office screamed danger. He still planned on finding out what had happened to the five of them, but Jo had had his grandmother's engagement ring. The ring meant commitment and Zane's idea of commitment didn't last past two weeks. Zane's ideas for Jo, well they might take longer than two weeks but certainly not a life time. He doubted he'd ever actually share those plans with her anyways, safer to stick to fantasizing.

Zane decided to join the conversation, mostly because it would annoy Fargo. "Really we thought the last time the device was used it went so well we'd offer the design specs up to anyone wanting to make their own home version. Nothing like a little zombie uprising to get the adrenaline pumping don't ya think?"

"No there will no calling Jo!" Despite what Fargo had told Jack earlier he was not stupid enough to actually do it. "I'll call Carter." Looking at the other two he added "Quantum flux generators can be taken away so quickly it would be like it was never here. Try to remember that before anyone starts dialing any numbers."

"Relax Fargo I wasn't planning on calling her" Zane ground out. He needed that damn generator and who knew when he'd get another opportunity to blackmail one out of Fargo again.

Fargo let out a relieved sigh Jo would kill him if she got a call from Zane. The whole point of her going away was to be Zane free for a few days. He didn't even know where she was other than her comment "I'll be close enough to get back if somebody actually dies." Fargo decided it was time to get to the real reason he was there. "About the Helicopter, Mansfield's test pilot will be here on Monday is everything ready."

"The Steering mechanism is almost installed and we're getting the first round of weapons ready to be tested." Zane told him, hoping Fargo would go away soon the smell was making him nauseous.

"Almost? Getting ready? Asher Maddox will be here Monday it needs to be ready for him to get started right away. General Mansfield is not going to put up with any more delays." Fargo really hated having to rely on Zane for anything, you never knew if he was going to actually do what he'd been asked.

"Relax, Mon dictator. We have all weekend to finish it up, we'll be ready." Anything if it would keep Fargo out of the lab. That and Zane had looked up (ok hacked into) Asher Maddox's file and he was kind of interested in meeting the man.

From what Zane had learned it seemed they had something's in common like not really caring about the rules. At first it had read like the guy was a male version of Jo focused, driven, a brilliant military career full of heroics. Well he guessed it had read like Jo's but her file was something even Zane couldn't get into and he'd tried more than once. Then he'd gotten to the good part reprimand after reprimand. Nothing serious but it seemed the former army major had pulled almost as many stunts as he had. Zane's personal favorite was the guy had borrowed a Blackhawk helicopter to fly half way across some country to pick up his date. The weird part was the name of the country and his date had been deleted out of the report. Zane figured it must have been some foreign dignitary's daughter, he really wanted ask the guy about it.

"See that it is. Maddox is a friend of Jo's anything goes wrong and I'll let her deal with you two." Fargo said then left the lab. _"God I hope Donovan actually does what he says he will. Mansfield is already on the war path about something I need this to go right."_

Fargo decided having to deal with the Clayton twins and Zane all in one day was enough, he was going home to shower. He pulled out his PDA and called Carter on his way. "_Great now he's not answering, Sunday cannot come quick enough."_ Fargo went back to thinking he'd never let Jo take another vacation again and called Clayton.

**Henry's Lab**

Temporarily forgetting how bad he smelled Jack walked into Henry's lab hoping a chat with his friend would improve his mood. In greeting he called out "I'm staging a coup we're putting Allison back in charge."

Henry immediately started backing up waving a hand in front of his face, his eyes starting to water. "Umm Jack not to be rude but when was the last time you took a shower."

Jack stopped short and looking sheepish replied "Sorry about that there was another fight in one of the labs." Seeing the raised eyebrows on Henry he continued "Don't ask."

Henry let out a small laugh "Well judging by the odor I'd say you lost." Trying to ignore the way his friend smelled he continued thoughtfully "I take it you're having a bad day."

"More like bad week. I know Jo's covered for me a few times when I've left town but this is the last time I return the favor. One more day of Fargo and I'll probably strangle him." Jack said running a hand over his face. He desperately needed a shower and a beer. "Honestly I don't know how Jo's managed to keep from killing him."

"Well things definitely run smoother when Jo's here" Henry said looking at the Dirac Transmitter he'd spent the last several hours trying to repair. It had been damaged yesterday when two scientists had actually gotten into a brawl over which was better Halo 2 or Halo 3. "But I don't think you can blame Fargo entirely. Things seem to be more unruly than usual around here."

Jack wasn't willing to give an inch were Fargo was concerned "And that would be Fargo's fault. He doesn't have the first idea how to manage people, give him a button he shouldn't push and we're golden. Maybe you or Allison should mentor him or something."

"We're always here for Fargo if he needs us but I think Jo keeps him grounded well enough. Granted things have been a little worse than normal the last couple of days, but really he's doing better than I thought he would." Seeing the look on Jack's face Henry offered "If it will make you feel better I'll keep an eye on him, see if things are as bad as you think."

Henry knew he was going to have to do that carefully. He and Allison both had tried to advise Fargo when they'd found out he was the Director. At first Fargo had been happy to get the advice but he'd soon come to resent what he saw as them interfering. Fargo just seemed to take things better if it came from Jo. He was also pretty sure Jo would have no end of things to say when she found out what had gone on in her absence, Fargo wouldn't need anybody else piling on after that.

Jack nodded "Enough about Fargo, I really came to see if you and Grace wanted to Join Allison and me for brunch Sunday at Café Diem. Kevin is trying to butter Allison up for something he wants and has offered to babysit Jenna. Plus after the week I've had I could use a little time with someone other than Fargo or Andy to talk to."

"That sounds nice, we'll be there." Henry replied smiling and turning his head away from Jack. Any time Jack moved Henry would get another nose full of Jack's less then pleasant aroma. "Grace always enjoys it when I take her out after church. One request though, could you a maybe find a shower between now and then. I promise not to ask Fargo to join us if you do." Henry added unable to resist making a little fun of Jack.

Taking Henry's ribbing good naturedly Jack replied "Good we'll see you there. I guess I'd better go find that shower about now." Then he headed out of the lab to do just that. _"God, I really do smell pretty bad."_

Jack felt his PDA start to vibrate, glancing at the display and seeing Fargo's name he decide to ignore it. _"Jeez he didn't even make it a whole hour. He'll never learn if I keep running to his rescue and if it's important he'll call back. Twelve or fifteen times"_ Jack headed home not looking forward to the comments he was sure SARAH his house would make when she got a whiff of him.

**The Outskirts of Portland**

Jo felt great she hadn't allowed herself to have a long weekend like this in years. She'd pampered herself, shopped and hit a few nightclubs in Seattle with a friend. The night clubs weren't really her scene but when you've decided to turn over a new leaf why not. Grace had told her to put herself out there and she had. She'd been hit on, danced with a few and left feeling pretty good about herself. _"A little harmless flirtation is good for the soul"_ Jo decided _"and certainly good to help a woman start to get over a broken heart."_

It wasn't that Jo hadn't thought about Zane once the entire time she'd been gone but it had been a little easier with some distance between them. She couldn't spend the rest of her life wishing for something that didn't even exist anymore. So Jo had left Eureka determined to get a grip, no more moping around or grieving for what she'd lost. It was past time for her to get on with her new life _"everyone else has."_ Once she'd hit Seattle Jo had decided a new life meant a new Jo, well not too new she liked who she was. _"I just want to have a little fun, I miss fun."_

The man she was currently driving to Portland to pick up could help her with that. Ash certainly had turned the ability to balance getting the job done when needed and blowing off steam when it's over into an art form_. "He'd also turned being a bad influence on you into and art form too at one time" _she thought with a small smile, Jo still couldn't believe some of the things she'd let him talk her into doing. She hadn't seen him since she'd come to Eureka and was a little nervous about doing so now. With all the changes that had occurred in her life recently she really needed Asher not to be one of them.

Jo was pleasantly surprised when she'd discovered the other version of her had hired Clayton and brought him to Eureka. She'd been thrilled when she'd figured out nothing about their friendship had been changed by the time travel and she was hoping the same was true between her and Asher. _"I've already lost Zane I don't think I can handle it if Asher and I have never meant anything to each other either."_

Jo needn't have worried. Asher Maddox was currently sitting in a diner in Portland waiting for the only woman he had ever really been in love with to show up, one Josephina Lupo.

**AN: This story has nothing to do with my first two but I have brought characters from both stories into this one and will be touching on some of the same backgrounds. **


	2. Why Can't a Girl Have a Little Fun

**AN: some of the characters will be using acronyms and military slang when talking to each other I will provide the definitions of them in chapters were they appear.**

PFC: Proud F'ing Civilian

**Sunday Café Diem**

Jack, Allison, Henry and Grace sat at a table enjoying their after brunch vinnespresso's. Jack had been thoroughly enjoying himself until Allison and Grace brought the subject of Fargo up. Apparently he wasn't the only one starting to worry about how Fargo was handling things at GD.

"Something's wrong when I called him about the theft he told me to call Larry." Grace was saying "It was almost like he didn't care."

"What theft? No one called me about a theft" Jack asked a little surprised. When things went missing at Global it usually meant the town was about to be destroyed. _"Why the hell didn't Fargo call me, he panics over every little thing yet can't be bothered when there's an actual crime"_ Jack's unease of Fargo running GD on his own was starting to grow, completely forgetting he'd ignored a call from Fargo Friday afternoon.

Seeing the worried look on Jack's face Grace explained "someone took one of my memory sharing devices, nothing town ending. I just don't like the idea of someone sneaking into my lab and stealing from me." Grace didn't say it but she was a little angry with Fargo for blowing her off. Well not completely blowing her off Clayton had come by and taken a statement from her but no one seemed to be taking it too seriously.

"Actually I've heard your device isn't the only thing to go missing lately. I don't know what else is gone but rumors are starting to spread around Global." Allison informed the group "Fargo just seems to be unable to multitask right now. The only thing on his mind is the upcoming test flights."

Personally Allison thought Fargo should be more concerned about the thefts_. "If the rumors are true the thefts are the top priority."_ When she'd been Director any hint of something like this and she'd have brought Jack in right way, she didn't understand why Fargo hadn't done the same. She knew from experience that General Mansfield would be more perturbed by the missing experiments than missing a deadline.

"And now I'm back to thinking we should stage a coup. I like Fargo but he's obviously in over his head trying to run Global." Jack said, annoyed that Fargo had suddenly stopped calling him. "Any relaxation Jo managed to get on her time off will go up in smoke when she gets back today." Part of Jack wanted to be there when Jo went off on Fargo the other part was wondering if he'd have to protect him from his ex-deputy.

Henry tried to be the voice of reason "We don't know what's really going on, yes something was taken from Grace's lab but the rest is like Allison said rumor. We all know how quickly rumors can get started at Global. Maybe we should wait and see if anything else really has gone missing before we condemn Fargo as incompetent." He was starting to wonder about Fargo but he wasn't quite ready to jump on the Fargo isn't cutting it band wagon without more facts. "When Jo gets home we'll talk to her. Whatever is going on with Fargo Jo will figure it out and get him back on track."

Everyone seemed to agree with Henry's last statement, they all knew Fargo talked and listened to Jo a lot more than any of the rest of them. Whatever was going on Jo certainly wouldn't ignore or tolerate any breaches of security at GD. The group of friends switched topics and went on to discuss Grace's plans for having a party.

* * *

Zane walked into the café and sat down waiting impatiently for Vincent to come over and take his order. He was starving and needed some lunch before he took a bite out of the countertop. Glancing around the room eyeing the other patrons he spotted Carter and his friends sitting around a table deep in conversation. _"Oh look the morality counsel is in session, all they need is Jo and her I do not approve stare to complete the quorum" h_e thought sarcastically. _"Maybe they're discussing their big bad secret. Whatever it is."_

Most of his weekend had been blown and he was not in a good mood. He'd been certain when he'd told Fargo everything would be ready Monday to begin testing that he and Parrish would be done yesterday morning. Now here it was Sunday afternoon and he still needed to get back to finish up before tomorrow.

The interruption by Jo's second in command Clayton hadn't helped. Zane understood that it had been necessary given the theft but it had also been unwelcomed. _"That guy is as anal and up tight as Jo, no wonder she hired him."_ Clayton had taken statements from both him and Parrish then proceeded to make them go over everything several more times. He'd also asked a lot of questions: Who had access, Where was the information stored, when was it last seen, who would want it, did it have any other uses, on and on it had gone for over two hours. _"The guy didn't miss a thing, he's almost as observant as Jo"_ Zane thought grudgingly.

He placed his order for two cheeseburgers to go and wondered if he was going to have to cancel his date tonight. He'd been looking forward to spending time with the pretty lab tech from bio chemistry she was easy to look at and all about having fun. Zane's kind of woman. He went back to looking around and felt his jaw drop in envy when he spotted the two bike's pulling up outside next to his.

The first was a Lime Green (Not his color) Ninja ZX-6R built for speed and one hell of a nice ride; it was the second one to pull up that had Zane contemplating trading his in. He'd seen pictures of that bike before. It was called the Bullet, a black custom made job that had cost the owner a small fortune. He figured the Bullet would have cost at least a year of his salary and Zane wasn't exactly underpaid. He watched the new couple get off their bikes. He figured they must be a couple since they'd rode into town together and they certainly were new, no way Zane wouldn't have known if the Bullet had been in town before.

"_Damn that woman is hot, Lupo hot. Too bad she's taken."_ He watched the woman that had been riding the Ninja turn around to face her traveling companion holding her hand out to the other guy. The guy shook his head, pulled out his wallet and slapped some money into the woman's hand. _"Must have lost a bet"_ Zane thought amused. He continued watching as the two removed their helmets a cascade of familiar long dark hair fell down past the woman's shoulders. _"Lupo! Jo Freakin Lupo is the owner of the Ninja. No freaking way."_ Zane was shocked _"Motorcycles are fun, Jo not so much. I doubt she can even spell fun."_ He continued watching as the guy jogged around Jo opening the door for her and placing his hand on the small of Jo's back to guide her in.

Zane's eyes narrowed and he looked a little angry as he watched Jo and Asher walk past him without a word and head straight for her friends.

* * *

Grace glanced up and saw Jo and some man walk in together, and what a man. Grace may love Henry but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate a hot guy when she saw one and the one escorting Jo their way was Hot. He was over 6ft tall, solid muscle, lean, jet black hair, gracefully athletic in fact he walked with the same quiet grace Jo did. Grace caught Jo's eye and started fanning herself letting Jo know she'd caught a good one, she smiled when Jo blushed.

"_I didn't think when I told her to put herself out there she'd actually do it, but by the look of things she went all out."_ Grace thought as the couple stopped at their table. It didn't escape Grace's notice that the man had not removed his hand from the small of Jo's back once. The touch conveyed an easy familiarity with each other and clear possessiveness on his part. _"Hmm, does Jo realize that man is seriously into her?" _Grace thought Jo was woefully unaware of just how many single guys in town would like her to give them half a chance but were too afraid to ask her for a date.

"Everyone this is Asher Maddox an old friend and Global's latest test pilot." Jo said casually. "Asher this is Jack Carter Eureka's sheriff, Dr. Allison Blake, Dr. Henry Deacon and his wife Dr. Grace Monroe. She continued indicating each of them in turn.

Jack and Henry stood holding their hands out for Asher to shake as everyone exchanged welcome's and pleasure to meet you's. It didn't escape Jack's notice that the second the social nicety of handshaking was over Asher placed his hand back where he had removed it from Jo. His protective instincts rose up; Jack felt it was his duty to make sure any guy interested in his ex-deputy treated her right. Sitting back down Jack took stock of one Asher Maddox noticing Asher was doing the same with the entire group of people at the table. _"Interesting, he's as protective of her as we are."_

"Sit down and join us, you can tell us all about your vacation" Jack invited. "You look like you enjoyed yourself." He needed to talk to Jo about everything that had been going on but Jack really hated the idea of being the reason her obviously relaxed and happy mood would disappear.

"Thanks, but actually we're meeting Clayton" Jo told him "it's sort of an impromptu reunion. I just wanted to introduce Ash to everyone." She knew the look in Jack's eye's meant there were problems and she really wasn't looking forward to the conversation they'd be having soon.

"Perhaps we could all get together another time" Allison said. Turning her head to Asher she asked "How long are you going to be in Eureka?"

Asher flashed Allison an easy smile but the look in his eyes was all business "It all depends on how the test flights and combat simulations go. If there are modifications that need to be made I'll be here for a while" his tone implying he was sure there would be "I won't sign off on anything I don't feel is 100% what are boys need." Afraid he might have just offended the scientists he added "I'm not big on putting unproven new birds out there in live combat. I've seen it too many times were something that looks great in the controlled testing environment turns out to be a disaster in a real life"

"Well hopefully you'll still be here when Henry and I have our party. We'd love the chance to get to know you better." Grace joined in, thinking maybe she'd try her hand at playing matchmaker. She didn't know what Jo and Zane had been like together before the five had time traveled but she thought it was high time Jo found someone that could mend her broken heart. Asher Maddox looked like a good candidate for just that to her.

Judging from the looks in Jack, Allison and Grace's eyes Jo knew she was going to get corned by each of them soon and pumped for more information about Asher. Spying a group getting up to leave she decided now was a good time to make an escape "I see a table opening up we should grab it before anyone else can" she told Asher. As a way of farewell she told her other friends "We'll catch up later." Asher guided Jo over towards the now empty table.

Grace spoke up first after the couple left "That man should be in the movies he would melt the hearts of every woman in the country. Did you see how green his eyes are, I don't think I've ever seen any like them."

Henry decided his wife needed a little good natured ribbing. He let out an exaggerated sigh "I didn't realize you were looking to replace me with a newer model, I'm simply crushed. I guess if you're going to take Jo on for a guy I'll have to change the theme of our party to a wake."

Grace looked at him with a twinkle in her eye "Oh I'm not looking to replace you, at least not yet. But dear, I got married not buried I can still appreciate a good looking man when I see one and Asher is one good looking man." Turning a little more serious she continued "I say yay for Jo it will do her good to spend time with a nice looking man that appreciates her."

"I don't know there's something about the guy that says troublemaker. He has that bad-boy aura about him." Jack said

Allison rolled her eyes at Jack "You just met him give him a chance before you start in on the papa bear protecting his cub act." Seeing the mulish look on Jack's face she continued "Please we all know you pull it anytime a guy gets within five feet of either Zoe or Jo. I'm more concerned with the sudden 180 degree change in Jo's mood."

"Why she seemed happy isn't that what we all want for her?" Jack asked surprised.

Allison tried to explain what was bothering her "Yes but she was only gone for five days, that seems a little quick for her to have gone from sad and heartbroken to happy and relaxed. It's just not like her to make such a dramatic and sudden change and I'm having a hard time believing she got over Zane and everything that happened in five short days."

Jack nodded seeing Allison's point "I'll keep an eye on her. I need to talk to her anyways, I'll try feeling her out and see if I can get her to tell me what's up." Jack turned to look at Jo and saw that Zane had stood up blocking Jo and Asher's path to their table. _"So much for her good mood, Zane just can't seem to leave well enough alone" _Jack sighed_._

* * *

Zane didn't know what had possessed him to do it but he was now standing in Jo's way, his blues intently watching the other two, cataloging everything about them, his stance slightly confrontational. He was being presented with an anomaly and anomalies needed to be investigated, especially ones concerning Jo. She looked relaxed and happy, Jo didn't do relaxed. She also didn't let anyone invade her personal space but the guy standing next to her had been doing just that since they'd arrived. "Have a nice trip?" he drawled.

"It was lovely I needed the break." Jo replied feeling her body tense up. She'd known Zane was there, the sudden tension in the air the second she'd walked through the door had told her that, she'd just hoped she wouldn't have to deal with him. _"I knew the Zane free zone wasn't going to last forever but another day would have been nice."_

Asher felt the tension in Jo as he reached out offering his hand to the other man introducing himself "Asher Maddox." His smile was friendly but the look in his eyes said back off. He knew Jo was perfectly capable of taking care of herself but he didn't like the aggression he felt radiating off the other man towards her.

Noticing the looks on both Zane and Asher's faces Jo forced herself to relax and quickly spoke up "Sorry I should have introduced you two. Ash this is Zane Donovan one of the scientists working on the Falcon." She didn't need Asher and Zane taking an instant dislike to one another, she had enough to deal with at GD already. Jo was fully aware of everything that had been going on while she'd been away.

She knew Asher was just as capable and willing as Zane to start pulling nasty stunts on someone he didn't like and she didn't need the added headache right now. Her talk with General Mansfield this weekend had indicated things were a lot worse than even she knew. Jo let out mental sigh of relief when the two men followed her lead and relaxed their stances as well.

She scrambled for something to say that would put the two on the right footing "Oh this is just perfect, you two should get on swimmingly neither one of you has met a rule you didn't think needed to be broken. Try not to make my life miserable by blowing up the building or the new helicopter." She over exaggerated her tone so they would know she was teasing.

Asher got the message and he wasn't dumb enough to push Jo's buttons when she was in a good mood. Matching her tone he replied "Sweetheart I don't blow up choppers, buildings yes, but a good chopper that's just sacrilege."

Zane wondered what method Jo was going to use to kill Maddox for calling her sweetheart and was a little surprised when she merely smiled. _"God she is just freakin gorgeous when she smiles."_

The three were interrupted when Clayton came in and loudly called out "Mad Dog." Smiling Asher walked away from Zane and Jo to greet his other friend.

Eyeing Jo intently his tone aggressive Zane asked "So you and Maddox what's the story there?"

Jo cleared her throat and looked around before meeting Zane in the eyes to answer casually "He's just an old Army buddy."

"_She's lying! Just like when she lied to me in the sheriff's office"_ Zane filed away the fact that he'd found a chink in Jo's armor, she had a tell. _"You are one terrible liar Jo Lupo."_ He also realized that meant when he'd asked what they had been to each other her response of "nothing" had been a complete lie. Yeah the ring and the kiss had told him the same thing but he'd just gotten more proof. Zane wasn't sure how he felt about Jo being unwilling to admit he had meant something to her, he was even less sure how he felt about the fact that Maddox obviously had too.

"You're lunch is here and I should go join them. I'll see you at work." Jo said then walked away before Zane could ask her any more questions. Suddenly Jo didn't think it was such a great idea having Asher and Zane work together.

* * *

"So I see you decided to join the ranks of the PFC's finally." Clayton ribbed Asher as he placed the beers he'd order for the three of them on the table.

"Hey it pays better and nobody shoots at you" Asher replied laughing, happy to see his friend again.

"It's still earlier yet and I haven't had any target practice in a couple of days" Jo joined in. The three of them hadn't been together in a long time and she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

The trio sat laughing and catching up with one another until Jack came over "Sorry gentlemen but I need to borrow Jo for a few minutes." Jo rose to join Jack knowing her vacation was now officially over.

Asher's mood turned serious after Jo left "I never got a chance to say it before but thanks." Seeing Clayton's confused look he continued "I mean for going back and getting Jo the hell out of there in Afghanistan."

Clayton matched Asher's mood "The only reason that ambush wasn't a complete massacre in the first place was that Jo and Sinclair headed in the opposite direction drawing their fire. They made it possible for the rest of us to get the hell out of there and got themselves captured in the process. I …we didn't do much except take a few guys guarding the perimeter out, by the time we got inside Jo had already killed Nadhir and his Dr. of death. We were too late to do a damn thing for Sinclair and Jo was in pretty bad shape herself."

"Still you disobeyed orders to go back you didn't have to do that." Asher said

"Mad" Clayton started using his nickname for Asher "we're talking about Lupo I'd march through hell to get to her if she was in trouble just like you would. Hell Jo would and has done the same for me."

The two men sat drinking their beer and thinking about just how many times Jo had saved their asses in and out of combat. Asher had met Jo when he'd been shot down, she and her unit had gone in to pull him out of hostile territory.

* * *

"So this Asher guy seems decent enough" Jack told Jo not wanting to jump right in to all the problems going on.

"He is. I'd trust him with my life" Jo responded she really didn't want to discuss Asher with Jack right now. She was still trying to figure out how she felt about him being back in her life.

"So….you and him?"

Jo rolled her eyes "When we were both in the Army we saw each other for a while now we're just good friends. You can relax Jack the big brother routine is sweet but I'm not ready to jump into another serious relationship yet. But thanks."

Jack relaxed, sometimes having girl talk or guy talk depending on how you looked at it with Jo was uncomfortable. "I hope you enjoyed your vacation because I'm not going through the hell I did with Fargo last week again for a while."

Jo laughed "Fargo's not that bad you just have to know how to keep him calm. He's pretty good in a crisis really."

Jack thought he might as well get straight to the point instead of arguing with her about Fargo "Look Jo there where a lot of incidents at GD last week including someone breaking into Grace's lab and stealing one of her memory devices."

'_Here we go."_ Jo thought, Clayton had called Jo every day and reported everything that had been going on. When the RSS blueprints went missing she had called General Mansfield. She didn't understand or necessarily agree with the General's orders but she was going to follow them. There was a hell of a lot more going on than any of them knew but Mansfield hadn't wanted to discuss it until she got back to GD and they could use a secure line. Until then she was to down play everything and make out that it was no big deal. When she'd mentioned returning to Eureka early the General had vetoed that saying she was to stay away and pretend like everything was business as usual. Jo was also supposed to keep Jack out of it as much as possible.

"I know about Grace's device and all of the various fights that took place, including that particularly nasty one in the Claypool twin's lab. Look I'm sure the memory device will show up eventually and as for everything else the scientists were probably just blowing off some steam. I'm sorry it happened all at once and you had to cover for me. Why didn't you just call Clayton to handle it?" Jo made it sound like she wasn't discussing anything more important than whether they might get some rain.

Jack couldn't believe how calmly Jo was taking everything it wasn't like her to allow any breach of security. "Jo it was more than just a couple of fights and a device gone missing, someone broke into Grace's lab."

Jo looked Jack dead in the eyes and lied "There was no break in, the security footage was checked and no one entered Grace's lab after she left for the day." Actually the security video for Grace's lab had been wiped clean and she had no idea when or if someone had gone in there. "Clayton took Grace's statement and we'll look into it but I'm sure she just misplaced her device and it will turn up."

Frustrated Jack tried again to get Jo to listen to him "Jo you need to take this more seriously. Mansfield doesn't like it when anything goes missing from GD even if it isn't a DOD project."

"I know how to do my job Jack" Jo snapped, yes she was lying to him but she still didn't like it when he implied she couldn't handle things. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to rejoin Ash and finish catching up, we haven't seen each other in a long time." With that she turned around and left Jack standing there.

Stunned Jack watched Jo walk away wondering what to do now. _"Fargo doesn't seem to be able to handle anything on his own and now Jo doesn't seem to care if it gets handled at all. What the hell is wrong with those two?"_

* * *

**AN:** I'm in no way making any comment on the Afghan war I simply used it because I read a fact sheet put out on the background of Jo's character. The fact sheet stated that Jo Lupo had served in the Afghan war as part of a special forces unit.


	3. I've Got a Secret, You've Got a Secret

**AN**: Slang terms: Bohica- Bend over here it comes again (something is not going to be pleasant); IG- Inspector General; S&G-shits and giggles; Cavu-ceiling and visibility unlimited (Best conditions for a flight); HUOA-head up ones Ass; Nah-No argument here; Pima- pain in my ass; Bingo- Minimum amount of fuel needed for a safe return; EUSTIS- even Uncle Sam thinks it sucks.

**Monday Fargo's Office**

"I'm sure Parrish now thinks I'm completely incompetent that is if he didn't already. Really Jo do you know how ridiculous I felt standing there pretending I didn't care the RSS designs were gone. That thing is a nightmare, there were effigies Jo, effigies of me the last time that damn thing got used. People were trying to kill me!" Fargo was in full on tantrum mode Parrish had been all over him about the RSS device the second Fargo had arrived at work.

Jo let out a frustrated sigh "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you Fargo so relax." She had enough to deal with right now she didn't need Fargo losing it added to the mix.

According to what General Mansfield had told them this morning the missing equipment and information was more than just the usual rivalry or resentment between labs. All of the design details for the Ion Cannon had turned up in the hands of the North Koreans. They had a spy and the North Koreans could now potentially build a very powerful weapon. Jo was still waiting for the information from the investigation the DOD had conducted to be forwarded to her, they were pretty sure in was an inside job.

Mansfield had been very clear no one but Jo, Fargo and key members of her security team were to know anything about what was going on. They were to keep everything low key; play everything off as no big deal whatever was missing would turn up eventually and most importantly not tip the traitor off that they were on to him. Jo didn't really think this would work for very long but she wasn't the one giving the orders. She also would have liked Jack's help with this but she couldn't fault the General's reasoning for not bringing him in on it, everyone was now a suspect. It had been all she and Fargo could do just to keep the General from sending Zane to prison on general principle she hadn't wanted to push her luck arguing that Jack could be trusted.

Keeping Jack and the others out of this mess also solved another problem that had occurred to Jo. The DOD was going to be crawling up everyone's personal and professional lives and that meant the risk of being exposed for time traveling was that much greater. Jo hoped that by her and Fargo keeping some distance from the others she could at least prevent them from being indicated if anything about their little trip was discovered. She couldn't do anything about Fargo he was already involved but she sure as hell could try and protect the rest of them, thankfully Fargo agreed with her. Jo looked up when Fargo's door opened and gave Clayton a tight nod as he entered.

Clayton noticed immediately that sonic protocol's where being used. That combined with the look on Lupo and the Director's faces had his easy going stance changing instantly to one of alert intensity "_Something's up and whatever it is it's not good."_

Jo filled Clayton in on everything ending with "I want this SOB found so that I can personally make sure they wished they'd never been born." She was pissed off that someone had managed to circumvent all of her security measures and was she taking it personally.

"Ok so in other words it's now a Bohica situation with the DOD I take it. How long do we have to catch this guy before Uncle Sam shows up and takes over?" Clayton asked Jo. Give him a regular army guy and he was good send in the boys from the IG and Clayton's skin started getting itchy. _"I was right this is gonna suck."_

"Not long, the only reason they're not here already is that the General wants this kept quiet. We don't want the traitor to figure out we're on to him before we can catch him" Jo replied. "It would help if we could determine if this guy has a plan to target specific projects or if he's just randomly taking whatever he can get his hands on. I get the Ion cannon, I even get the RSS device turn that thing on your enemy and they'll kill themselves off while you just sit back and watch. I don't get what they want with Dr. Monroe's memory device or Stark's device for sharing dreams. Hell we don't even know how many projects have been compromised." Jo finished frustrated with just how little they had to go on.

"It would be better if this had never happened in the first place" Fargo began peevishly. Seeing the hostile look in Jo's eyes he quickly continued "I'm not blaming this on you, we don't even know how long this has been going on. We just don't need the Army taking over that would be a nightmare. We need to get this resolved quickly." Fargo was afraid he was about to find himself unemployed or worse working for someone like Larry. The General liked having someone in charge of GD that he could control and intimidate, Fargo was learning to stand up to him but he knew he could only take that so far without getting fired.

"We need a plan. We can't just start swinging in the dark and hope we hit something." Clayton told Fargo.

"We have one" Jo began. "Clayton work with Fargo to start implementing those new counter intelligence measures we've been discussing. Fargo I need you to see if you can come up with a common link all of these devices might have, I find it hard to believe things are being targeted randomly. I'll start reviewing employee files, especially anyone that's been hired recently to see what I can find and I'm going to increase security on the entrances and exits around here."

"Is that all we can do?" Fargo asked her unhappy with how things were going "It sounds like we're just hoping to get lucky more than we have an actual plan" He finished peevishly.

"Well if you have any other suggestions I'd be happy to hear them right about now." Jo snapped back at him then taking a calming breath she continued "Look we don't even know who we're looking for, let's just concentrate on narrowing the field down and try to prevent anything else from disappearing." Jo had a bad feeling she was going to have a hard time keeping Fargo calm and focused, it wasn't going to help that Mansfield would be checking in with them twice a day from now on.

I'll go and get started on beefing up security details around here." Clayton told Jo looking over at Fargo he continued "I'll come back here after lunch to start working on those counter measures." Seeing the Director nod his agreement Clayton took off to get to work. _"I knew Lupo was going to pay me back for letting the Sheriff and Fargo stumble around dealing with everything last week but an afternoon with the man. That's freakin overkill." _He didn't dislike the Director but he thought Fargo was a little uptight and peevish; it was the peevish part that would land a guy on the unemployment line. He didn't understand what Lupo saw in Fargo but he knew she was actually pretty fond of him.

Jo turned around and looked at Fargo, judging by the look on his face she was now going to spend the rest of her morning trying to get him to relax and convincing him it wasn't a complete disaster. It was, it was a train wreck but she needed a calm Fargo not a hysterical one.

**The NLW Lab**

Parrish stood there watching Zane and the new guy Asher high fiving each other _"God those two are so much alike it's scary."_ He had to admit his day so far had been highly entertaining, listening to the two of them recount and try to one up each other with stories of various pranks and stunts they'd each pulled had kept everyone in the lab laughing all morning. _"Now all we need to turn this place into a high school classroom is a bunch of teenage girls trying to catch the attention of the cool boys."_

"If you two are finished acting like a couple of three year olds can we get back to work? I'd like to get out of here before midnight." Parrish said amusedly. It was hard to be mad at Zane and Asher when they'd just sent Larry running from the lab screaming like a little girl. The sight of Asher firing off the bean bag gun around Larry's fleeing silhouette without once ever hitting the jerk had been highly impressive. _"I bet he could give Lupo a run for her money on the firing range." _

"Oh Crap! Lupo. You know that little turd is now headed straight for Lupo's office." Parrish ground out at Zane suddenly their antics weren't so funny.

As if on cue Asher's PDA Rang, seeing it was Jo he put it on speaker. He had one more small bit of revenge to get and Jo could help him with that. "Joey" he answered knowing it would tell Jo he was up to something.

"Explain now." Jo snapped rolling her eyes at the use of his nickname for her. _"Great now I'm going to be stuck with Zane calling me that too."_

"S&G." Asher replied his voice playful. "Jo that guy seriously suffers from Huoa and today was not Cavu enough for a first flight. Plus the bingo on this bird kind of sucks and they want me to run combat sims against a HAL, a HAL Jo."

Jo caught on immediately, apparently Ash had already had enough of not understanding a word being said when the scientists got on roll of speaking their scientific babble. He was purposely leaving Parrish and Zane out of the conversation. "Nah on Larry, he's a pima but enough already. I'll see what I can do about the HAL I thought those things were classified EUSTIS."

"_That's my girl" _Asher thought seeing the confused looks on the scientist's faces. "Hey I got your car shipped here from Portland it should be here by tonight." he informed her knowing not to push Jo too far and it was the least he could do. He had talked her into buying the Ninja this weekend so they could ride back together.

"Thanks. Try not to terrify anyone else today." She told him sounding amused and hung up.

Asher grinned "No worries Jo's not mad." He told Parrish and went back to being all business. "No more stunts though or she will be, she's having a bad day. So where are we on those changes I requested? I'd like to start short test flights on Wednesday if possible."

Zane wonder how Asher could tell Jo wasn't angry he wasn't even sure what language they'd been speaking. But if learning to talk like that meant Jo stayed calm when he pulled a stunt he'd take a damn class on it. It also made him curious about what was really up between Asher and Jo "Jo said you two went way back, old army buddies."

Asher wasn't too thrilled by the characterization and decided to set the record straight "Clayton's an old army buddy, Jo no Jo was a hell of a lot more than that." Zane's interest in him and Jo bothered him _"I saw her first buddy."_

Zane could almost hear the "she always will be" that Asher had left unspoken and he wasn't too happy about it. He just didn't understand why it should bother him, If Jo wanted to date Asher it wasn't his problem. Hell maybe if she actually dated once in a while she'd relax a little and stay off his case. _"Ok so she hasn't been on my case in quite a while but still the woman needs to relax."_ He looked over and assessed Asher once more, he liked the guy but he was sure Asher was dead wrong for Jo. _"It's none of my business who she dates."_ He thought his mood turning sour.

Not liking it when his thoughts stayed too long on the subject of Jo Zane picked up the fuel tank Asher wanted modified and changed the subject "Ok I gotta know, The whole borrowed Blackhawk so you could pick up a date, she must have been quite a woman to risk your career for by pulling that stunt. Details" He'd been dying to hear about this since he's read Asher's records.

Asher laughed "Oh I barely got a slap on the wrist for that one, grounded for a couple of days nothing major. It was worth it though, it saved Jo and her unit a couple days hike back to camp and for once we didn't have to reschedule a date."

Asher smiled at the memory, the look on Jo's face when he'd set the chopper down in front of her had been priceless. She'd had that I am not amused by your antics look so he'd gone on the offensive first before she could lay in to him. "You're late Lieutenant; you were supposed to be back at camp three days ago."

"Yeah well we've been a little busy Major you however, seem to have plenty of time on your hands" she'd deadpanned back.

"Which I'm kindly using to save you and the guys here another two day trek through crappy terrain. So are you getting in or what." Asher had known she would her guys were tired, irritable and she'd pretty much do anything to make their lives easier. What he had paid for was the comment that she was adorable when she was irritated with him.

"_There is no way we are talking about the same Jo. Jo Lupo doesn't break the rules period."_ Zane was pretty sure it was a law of the universe, Jo Lupo will always follow the rules was as constant as Gauss' law for magnetic fields. _"she did brake those precious rules of hers when she let me take off instead of going back to prison for crashing the sky cruiser." _He had a working theory on who Jo was it was what he used to deal with her. Zane didn't like it when he was presented with facts that contradicted that theory. He set the new fuel tank for the Falcon down with a little more force than necessary, telling himself it was an accident and had nothing to do with the fact that Asher and Jo had once been very close.

Zane listened as Asher took a call from Grace getting the gist of the conversation; Asher and Jo were being invited to the Deacon's for dinner. He abruptly stood up "I'm getting some coffee" he ground out as he headed out the door. Once again Zane reminded himself _"It's not my business who Jo decides to date."_

**Henry's Lab**

"I'm sorry I had to call you Jack but Jo and Fargo were less than helpful when I tried talking to them and this is serious." Henry apologized.

Earlier he'd gone into the decommissioned storage to cannibalize some parts to use on a side project he had going. He'd noticed that the scrapped mind control device Dr. Delgado had developed years before had not been sitting on the shelf anymore. It had been there last week when he'd gone in there for parts and the sudden disappearance of it alarmed Henry. The device actually did work and in the hands of the wrong person could be very dangerous. But when he'd told Jo he thought there had been another theft she'd cut him off, said she'd look in to it and Clayton would be by to take a statement. He could see Fargo acting like a scrapped project was unimportant but not Jo, her attitude had thrown Henry.

Henry knew that Fargo and Jo were up to something that had been obvious by the intense conversation they'd been having when he'd seen them in the rotunda, a conversation that had come to a quick halt the second they had seen him coming. Henry just didn't see what could be so important that it out weighed the disappearance of projects from GD.

Jack ran a hand through his hair looking worried "Yeah I got the same attitude from Jo yesterday when I tried to talk to her. It's almost like she just doesn't care anymore what happens around here."

Jack was starting to really worry about his ex-deputy, Allison had been right Jo's entire personality seemed to have changed during the five days she took off. At first he'd been relieved to see Jo so happy but the more he thought about what Allison had said the more he agreed with her. Jo had not only seemed over Zane she'd acted like she hadn't even been affected by what had happened, like she and Zane had never been more than co-workers. Now she was acting like there wasn't anything more going on at Global than absent minded scientists and inter lab pranks. She should be out kicking ass and taking names that was Jo's style but suddenly she was simply unconcerned about everything, something was very very wrong with that picture.

"She and Asher are coming to dinner tonight I can try and talk to her again, see if I can't get her to take this more seriously. Maybe something happened to her while she was gone." Henry offered, he didn't have any better of an explanation for what was going on with Jo than Jack did.

"No let's hold off on that. When did you see the Mind device thingy last? Was it before or after Jo left town?" Jack asked not liking the idea that was forming in his head.

"Before, why?"

Jack explained what he was afraid of to Henry "What if what's wrong with Jo is that device? It would certainly be a hell of a lot easier to steal things if the head of security doesn't give a damn that you're doing it. I mean she's completely different, it's almost as if some alien has taken over."

Henry contemplated Jack's theory. It would explain the sudden changes in Jo, but he didn't know enough about how the mind control device worked "I'll pull Dr. Delgado's notes from the archives, if your right we're going to need to know how the device even operates. I'm fairly certain that a part of the device would have to have been implanted inside Jo herself. If that's true we'll need to find a way to get her to let Allison examine her."

"Ok in the mean time I'll start looking into the thefts myself. If Mansfield catches wind of what's going on around here Jo and Fargo will be in a lot of trouble. If you find out anything else is gone just call me, we'll deal with it ourselves until we can figure out what's wrong with her." Jack said not knowing what else to do to help Jo.

"Jo is not going to like it if she finds out where going behind her back, but you're right if she's being controlled by someone else we need to handle things for her until we can fix it." Henry agreed.

Both men wondered how in the world they would get Jo to cooperate with them if they were right. Jo Lupo could take down the entire building by herself under normal circumstances, if she was being controlled by someone else she could become extremely dangerous if confronted.

**AN:** There was a Dr. Jose Delgado in real life that developed a mind control electrode that was implanted in the brain. Some claimed the device was successful when tested in the brain of bulls by taking control of the physical movements the bulls could make.


	4. Appearances Can Be Deceiving

**AN: **Slang Terms: Back to the tax payers- what happens when you crash an aircraft; Bat-turn- Tight high G change of heading; Knife fight in a phone booth- Close-in aerial dogfight with a nimble adversary; Tits up- Broken.

**One Week Later-**

**Cafeteria at Global**

Jo sat at a table waiting for Grace to join her and laughing to herself over the memory of this morning's test flight. The sight of Asher stalking over to them after landing the helicopter had been something, he been so angry no one but Jo had understood what he'd been saying. "What the hell, I damn near sent that thing back to the tax payers trying to make a bat-turn. If it's not capable of a knife fight in a phone booth what the hell good is it, none. That thing is tits up get it fixed." Then he'd stormed off leaving Parrish, Zane and Fargo blinking in confusion and Jo to translate. The three scientists had quickly learned that when Ash was in full on Army Major "I will not tolerate this shit" mode he actually made Jo look like the calm one.

Glancing up she spotted Grace and waved her over smiling as the other woman sat down, unlike the others Grace at least hadn't spent the last week acting like Jo had lost her mind. Allison had been on Jo's case all week to take a physical telling Jo it was a new employee requirement that a physical now be done twice a year. _"Which is complete crap."_ Any new employment requirements would have come from Fargo and gone through her, it was Jo's responsibility to give the final clearance for anyone to work at GD after all.

Carter was another one that had been treating Jo strangely it was almost like he didn't think she was at all capable of doing her job anymore. He was spending more time at GD then normal asking her repeatedly where she was at in finding the memory and mind control devices. A couple of times he'd asked to look at any evidence her team had found and even gone so far as to suggest she coordinate her investigation with him and Andy. Jo loved Jack like a brother but he was seriously getting on her nerves, the last time she'd seen him their conversation had turned into an argument over the fact that he really didn't have any authority to step into her investigation. She didn't like not being able to tell Jack what was really going on "_but that doesn't mean I have to put up with him acting like I'm completely incompetent." _

Jo looked at Grace's face and wondered if maybe agreeing to meet her for lunch had been a bad idea something was obviously on Grace's mind. _"Great all I need is someone else treating me like I've lost my marbles."_ Jo was surprised when Grace immediately started in on her about Asher.

"So how are things going with you and Asher?" Grace asked "That man is quite a catch."

Jo blinked trying to figure out where Grace was headed with the conversation "Hmmm ok I guess, we're just friends but it has been nice to spend time with him again."

Grace shook her head in disbelief over Jo's inability to see the obvious "Jo that man wants to be _just_ your friend about as much as I want to have all the funding for my projects cut. In case it's escaped your notice and apparently it has that man is seriously into you. Whenever the two of you are in a room together he never takes his eyes off of you and he stays as close to you has he can get. "

Jo wasn't sure how she felt about what Grace had just said. It was nice to spend time with Ash again it was easy and comfortable but Jo had never really considered starting things back up with him. If you had asked Jo three years ago about Ash she'd have agreed that Ash was the right man for her but, then she'd met Zane and she'd never looked back after that. Of course all of that was before they'd changed things now there was no her and Zane. _"But nothing about me and Ash was changed."_ Maybe the universe was trying to tell her something, if it was Jo wasn't sure her heart was going to listen.

Jo gave Grace a small smile "I'm sure your exaggerating things Ash has never once said he wanted to try again. Even if he did I'm not sure that I could, I know that Zane and I are over I just can't seem to get myself to let it go. It wouldn't be fair to Ash if I couldn't fully commit" and Ash would fully commit. He was either in or out, no hesitation, no games and he made sure you knew where he stood.

Grace thought maybe it was time for Jo to face a few truths "Jo I know it's been hard on you and I don't know what the Zane you knew was like, but I do know this Zane and this Zane isn't likely to change anytime soon. He's spent the last two years making sure nothing goes past casual with any woman. Jo he dated Zoe because it fed his ego and annoyed Jack, he's not relationship material and he won't be until he grows up. That hasn't happened in the last two years and truthfully I don't see it happening any time soon. He still acts like an angry college frat boy and he likes it that way."

Grace didn't dislike Zane she actually thought he was a nice guy and he was always willing to help her with something when she asked. However Grace also knew quite a few of the women around here that had set their sights on him and had their hearts broken for their troubles. The second things started getting even a little serious and Zane was out of there, Jo deserved a lot more than that.

Jo sighed "I know that you are probably right it's just that…" Jo wasn't sure how to finish her sentence so tried again "I'm trying to move on I really am it's not that easy, I loved him."

Grace reached out and placed her hand over Jo's "I know you're trying and I understand you loved him, but Jo don't close your heart off to what you could have with Asher because you're still grieving what you lost. Just think about it" Thinking she'd pushed Jo as far as she could for now Grace rose "I need to get back to work, but Jo think about what I've said please."

"I will" Jo promised her watching her friend leave. Jo closed her eyes and took a calming breath; she was just about to get up from the table to go to her meeting with Fargo and Clayton when she suddenly felt the tension in the air. Zane sat down across from her.

"_she looks sad again."_ Seeing her open her eyes back up and give him the same polite but distant look she'd adopted with him recently he let out a frustrated sigh "Hello Joey enjoy your lunch?" he used the nickname he'd heard Ash call her trying to get a rise out of her.

It worked Jo narrowed her eyes "Don't call me that."

Zane raised his hands up in surrender his trademark smirk on his face "What the hell is Swag?"

Jo laughed apparently Ash still hadn't finished calming down "Scientific wild ass guess. Why?"

Zane snorted offended by her response "I don't make wild ass guesses. Do you people have a dictionary so I can understand what the hell you're talking about?"

Jo smiled at him "Sure it's in the bookstore right next to Translating Scientific Babble For the Normal Person." She stood up "If you don't need any more translations I have a meeting I need to get to." Spending time with Zane was not going to make thinking about what Grace had said any easier.

Zane rose with her leaned in close and whispered in her ear "Personally I prefer JoJo." He pulled back winked at her then walked off.

**Henry's Lab**

"We can't keep this from Jo and Fargo we're going to have to tell them" Allison said. She didn't know what was wrong with the two of them but keeping them out of the loop wasn't going to help anything. Something had definitely happened to Jo on her vacation and the dramatic change in the woman's attitude was really worrying Allison. _"Hiding things from Jo is only going to make things worse"_ She thought.

"I know I just want to take a look around and talk to Dr. Lofton first." Jack told her. He didn't know what was going on with Jo or Fargo for that matter but he didn't buy their line that there hadn't been any evidence to indicate theft. If he was right and the mind control device was being used on Jo it was just as possible Fargo was under its influence too. Something was definitely up with those two they'd become secretive and seemed to constantly be huddled together deep in conversation. Conversations that no one else was allowed in on, the second anyone approached them they'd stop talking. At this rate Jack was worried the entire building would be cleared out before Jo or Fargo took it seriously.

"I think Jack is right he should look into things first" Henry joined in "I heard one of the security guys talking about Parrish's RSS device and I think it may have gone missing too. If Jo can ignore that I don't think she'll take much interest in the loss of a phased acoustical array."

"The RSS! That thing was a nightmare are you sure it's gone?" Jack asked getting more worried by the second about Jo and Fargo.

"No It was just an impression and whatever is going on Parrish isn't talking. I asked him about the RSS and he said the device was fine." Henry replied "Still I think it's best if we keep looking into this ourselves. Something is definitely wrong with Jo and Fargo." Henry was starting to think Jack had been right and someone was using the mind control device on Jo. Usually you had to hold Jo back before she went out and simply shot the bad guy now they couldn't even get Jo to acknowledge there was one.

"I've tried to get Jo to let me give her a physical but she keeps putting me off telling me she's too busy right now. Fargo wasn't much help, when I tried talking to him about it he backed Jo and said the same thing that they were too busy." Allison told the other two. "Whatever is going on Fargo is very nervous and stressed out but he's just too touchy lately to let anyone help him. He accused me of just wanting my old job back."

Henry looking very serious decided to say what they were all thinking "Whatever is going on we need to find some way of getting them both checked out. Sooner or later General Mansfield is going to hear about everything, actually if we don't figure this out soon we may have to tell the General ourselves. If some of these devices get into the wrong hands it could be very dangerous."

All of them knew Henry was right, but to call the General and report that Fargo and Jo weren't doing their jobs, well, none of them wanted to do that and it could potentially create other problems for all of them. No one wanted to call the General in but they couldn't ignore the risk the missing equipment posed to the people in Eureka and the rest of the world.

"I'll go talk to Dr. Lofton now. The problem is that if we keep insisting on Jo and Fargo letting Allison take a look at them it might it might tip off whoever's behind it and we might never catch him. Maybe you two could come up with some way to examine them without them being aware of it." Jack said before leaving the lab. Whoever was messing with his two friends he wanted them caught.

Allison looked quizzically at Henry "How exactly do you do something to Jo without her being aware of it? You can't even come up behind her without her being aware that your there."

Henry shrugged "Fargo shouldn't be much of a problem but Jo I think we'll have to find a way to do from a long distance away." Personally Henry thought if he could find a way to bottle Jo's heightened sense of awareness to her surroundings they'd give him another Nobel. _"Best to stick to Fargo first, Jo's likely to shoot someone if we sneak up on her."_

Allison and Henry spent the rest of the afternoon working on a way to check Fargo for any object that might have been implanted without Fargo knowing what they were doing.

**Fargo's Office**

"We don't have much to go on but I agree with Lupo what we do have is too tidy" Clayton told Fargo "Donovan may be a pain in everyone's ass but this isn't his style and he's not dumb enough to leave evidence behind."

"Maybe" Fargo hedged "But we can't keep it from the General for much longer. He wants results and so far we haven't given him any." It chaffed at him to admit it but stealing design schematics and various projects to sell on the black market really wasn't Zane's mo. Making his chair blow up when he sat down yes, even playing Robin Hood for someone but treason no. _"Zane does have lines he won't cross, they're wavy, but he has them."_

"I know." Jo sighed "but even what we do have doesn't really amount to much evidence. Finding his jacket in the decommissioned storage doesn't mean he stole the mind control device, neither does the logs showing him going into the NLW lab in the middle of the night when the RSS designs came up missing. He shows up here at odd hours all the time to work on something."

"What about the bank account? What about all that money you found in it? How do we explain that?" Fargo asked Jo worried that maybe Zane really was the one stealing from Global and they just didn't want to admit it. _"If Zane is the one doing this it will crush her."_

It was Clayton that spoke up "See even that doesn't seem right, there's just not enough money there. If Donovan was the one selling state of the art GD projects you'd think he'd make a hell of a lot more doing it. Either he's stupid, which we know he's not, and getting taken to the cleaners by the buyers or that money came from someplace else. We need to track where the money came from."

Jo smiled this was what she'd always liked about Clayton, he was capable of focusing in on the smallest detail but he never lost sight of the big picture. The small details indicated Zane had something to do with the thefts but the big picture looked like a set up. "I'll work on tracking the money and I'll have a talk with Zane about the other things. Fargo you need to stall the General until we have more, if he takes over now Zane will be in prison before any of us can blink."

"You two need to find something leading us to who's really doing this quickly, I can't keep General Mansfield at bay forever. He's getting impatient with us as it is." Fargo told them thinking if they didn't figure this out soon none of them would be around to worry about whether Zane was charged with espionage or not.

"I'll see what else I can find but I wouldn't hold my breath it will be much, whoever we're looking for they're good." Clayton told them rising to leave the office. He felt like he was being played by the traitor and he didn't like being played. Turning back to Jo before walking out the door he told her "Don't forget about tonight, 1900 sharp."

"Yeah we'll be there" Jo called back

"What's at 1900?" Fargo asked.

"Music and dancing night at Café Diem a group of us are going." Knowing Claudia was in town and Fargo was having a bad week Jo decided to be nice "Hmmm do you and Claudia want to join us?" This whole mess was starting to cause a rift for her and Fargo with the others and she thought Fargo could use a break.

"Great it sounds like fun." Fargo answered happily. He was always a little nervous spending time with Claudia and thought hanging out with a group would help.

Jo nodded to him and left to go back to her own office, she needed to start tracking the money in Zane's new bank account. Jo wondered if it really would be possible to keep Zane out of prison this time. Things weren't looking to good right now but she knew in her soul that Zane was not the one selling GD secrets.

**Jo's Car**

Asher sat in the passenger seat watching Jo drive as they went to pick up Fargo and his girlfriend. Jo had said something about Fargo's car being in a bad mood and the other two needed a lift. He wasn't sure how a car could be in a bad mood but after some of the things he'd seen around Global this week he wasn't going to question the statement. Asher wonder about Jo's friendship with Fargo she treated him like an annoying little brother part exasperation and part affection, it was very similar to how she had treated Sinclair.

Thinking about Sinclair reminded Asher that there was a conversation he and Jo needed to have, a conversation that wasn't going to be particularly pleasant. He wasn't even sure Jo would talk to him about it but having her trapped in a car would certainly help. She'd changed and Asher had a pretty good idea why. Jo had always been focused, driven, one of those people that succeeded at anything she put her mind to but now she was more guarded and reserved than she used to be. Jo had never been overly demonstrative but she hadn't been as closed off and hard to get to know as she was now.

Taking a deep breath and hoping he wasn't about to completely blow things Asher quietly asked Jo a question "Joey, why didn't you go to Sinclair's memorial?"

Jo was stunned by the question she didn't want to discuss anything to do with that part of her life. She also knew that Ash wouldn't back down, if there was something he wanted to know or something he felt needed to be said he'd do it whether she liked it or not. "I was still in the hospital" not true but maybe he'd leave it be now.

"No you weren't." Asher snapped at her frustrated that this was the tact she was going to try and take. "Do you honestly believe I didn't keep tabs on you and your recovery after I found out what had happened? I know you don't remember this but I was there Jo, in Germany, when you were going in and out of consciousness. The second Clayton contacted me I took leave to get to you." Asher tried to push the memory of exactly how bad Jo had been hurt and the anger he'd felt seeing her like that.

"I had no idea no one ever told you were there." Jo didn't know why it would surprise her that he had been or that he had made sure he was kept informed of her condition. She knew she was going to have to tell him something or he would push until this turned into a fight and Jo really didn't feel like fighting with him right now. She took a deep and shaky breath, she did not like thinking about this. "I couldn't, I didn't feel that it would have been right for me to be there." She tried to explain.

"Why?" He asked her quietly relieved she opted to answer him. He needed to know this, he needed to be able to gage how deep the changes in her went and whether they would affect them.

"They were my team, yes I know what we did was dangerous, but it was my job to make sure all of them got out of there. I failed to do that for Sinclair." Every time someone talked to Jo about what had happened she was swamped with guilt over Sinclair's death, a guilt that threatened to engulf her entirely. She really hoped Ash would leave it alone now that she'd answered his question.

Asher wasn't surprised Jo blamed herself for their friend's death but she needed to understand that she couldn't have prevented it. "Jo, what happened wasn't your fault. Clayton told me you had order Sinclair to go with the rest of the group but Sinclair chose to follow you, he chose to help you. He was a smart man Jo he knew going with you probably meant he wasn't coming back, the same way you knew when you did what you did. You can't blame yourself because you survived and he didn't." He doubted Jo would listen to him it was more likely she'd carry the guilt for the rest of her life.

He wanted to say more to her about it but they'd pulled up at Fargo's house. Asher wondered what he could do to erase the sad haunted look he'd put in Jo's eyes with their talk. He didn't have to worry about it, the second Claudia got into the car she talked nonstop about some of the crazy things that went on at someplace called warehouse 13. Asher was grateful the other woman was there he wanted Jo to have a good time tonight and Claudia's stories where pretty funny if unbelievable.

Jo drove the four of them to Café Diem promising herself she would send Tabitha the AI in Fargo's car a case of motor oil. Claudia's constant stream of talking was making it possible for Jo to get out of having to discuss Sinclair with Ash anymore and Jo just wanted to relax a little bit tonight. It had been a long week.


	5. A Little Food For Thought

**That night at Café Diem**

Zane sat at a table with Kylie from the Bio chemistry lab. He'd had to cancel their date last week and was supposed to be making up for it tonight. Unfortunately he was failing miserably at it, neither one of them was having a good time. It shouldn't have been a problem Kylie was pretty and she was funny something she'd spent the entire night trying to get Zane to notice. He however was too tired and preoccupied to pay her much attention. He'd been having strange dreams all week and a lot of old memories kept popping into his head and he'd had a hard time sleeping because of it all. It hadn't helped that most of his focus had not been on Kylie but on the group of people sitting across the room.

Clayton and his girlfriend were there along with Jo and Asher and to Zane's surprise Fargo and that girl Claudia. After what had seemed a few awkward moments the group had been laughing and talking loudly with each other all night. Asher's arm had been draped across the back of Jo's chair since they'd sat down telling everyone in the room that they were together. _"They're too alike Jo needs to find a guy that can shake up her overly ordered world not encourage it."_

It also had not escaped his notice that Jo and Fargo were suddenly keeping their distance from the rest of the band of five. _"Interesting there seems to be some dissention in the ranks. I wonder what's up with that."_ Not only had Jo and Fargo not once spoken to their other friends but Fargo kept nervously glancing over towards the other table. Whatever was going on it seemed the band of five for once wasn't marching in lock step with each other. _"Maybe I can use this to figure out their damn secret."_

Zane realized that Kylie had just said something to him and made the effort to shift his attention away from Jo's table and back on his date where it belonged. Offering to get Kylie another drink he rose and headed for the counter the same time Asher did.

"Pretty" Asher said indicating Zane's date. It hadn't escaped his notice that Zane had spent most of the evening watching him and Jo.

"Oh she's not as hot as your date but she is pretty and fun." His tone implying he didn't think Jo knew how to have fun. For some reason Zane felt the need to push Asher's buttons over Jo.

"Jo, Jo's so hot it's like looking through the shimmer of a jet engine and she can definitely be a lot of fun." Asher replied then winked at Zane before picking up his drinks and heading back to his own party.

Zane's mood was not a particularly good one when he got back to his table.

* * *

"So I take it Jo knows about the phased acoustical array missing?" Henry asked Jack

"Oh she knows, I was only in Dr. Lofton's lab for five minutes before Clayton showed up and very politely but firmly escorted me out of Global." Jack responded remembering Clayton's not so subtle reminder that Jack's office was in town not there. "I didn't learn much only that Dr. Lofton had found a piece of metal with some weird symbols on it that didn't belong to anyone that worked in the lab."

"What kind of symbols? Can I see it?" Allison asked

"I don't know some kind of math I think, but Clayton took it from me." Jack told her. "Whatever is going on Clayton is definitely following Jo's lead, I heard him tell Dr. Lofton that it was probably a prank and they'd find the acoustical thing some place in the building."

"These are not pranks." Allison said "It getting a little frustrating that no one seems to care. It's even more frustrating that Fargo and Jo seem to be cutting us out completely." She waved across the room indicating the other two seated with their dates.

"Jo has a few things to figure out right now, maybe she just feels more comfortable doing that without anyone commenting or questioning her about it." Grace supplied. Grace didn't want to say too much about what Jo had on her mind. The younger woman had come to her in confidence before leaving on her vacation, thinking Grace would have a good perspective on what Jo was going through given her situation with Henry. Grace didn't think it was her place to break that confidence, if Jo wanted to talk to Jack or Allison she would. "I don't think Jo is ignoring her job I just think she's a little preoccupied right now. Give her some time."

"I really wish I thought you were right but Jo's behavior is strange to say the least and more and more things keep turning up missing. Whatever is going on Jo and Fargo both are either ignoring it or covering it up." Allison said. "We can't just sit back and hope they go back to normal soon."

"Well I tried talking to Fargo again today not that it did any good. I don't know who's becoming more paranoid Fargo or Jo but neither one of them wants me in that building. We need to do something about this and quickly before it's out of our hands." Jack said the worry for his friends very clear in his voice.

All of them turned to watch their other two friends; Jack, Henry and Allison all believing that Fargo and Jo were acting like they didn't have a care in the world while Grace wondered if maybe Jo had finally decided to give Asher a real chance. Grace didn't share the belief that either Fargo or Jo were being controlled by someone, in fact she thought Fargo and Jo were very worried about something.

* * *

"_Something's up"_ Asher thought to himself. Jo, Clayton and Fargo had been exchanging looks with each other all night. Fargo looked edgy and nervous while Jo and Clayton had that look in their eyes that Asher hadn't seen since Afghanistan. It was the same look the two would get before going out on a mission, it meant they were gearing up to go on the hunt and inflict some damage somewhere. He wouldn't ask them about it he understood need to know and apparently the three were operating on a need to know basis. That didn't mean he wouldn't pay more attention to what was going on around Global though, if it was bad they might need some back up. _"Judging by the looks on Jo and Clay it's pretty bad."_ Tonight however he'd do what he could to keep the mood light take some of the pressure off of them, the three definitely looked like they needed to blow off some steam badly. He wanted to talk to Jo later but he needed her in a mood where she'd be receptive to what he was going to say.

Asher continued with the story he'd been telling thinking the best thing to do was keep them laughing "So there the Colonel was covered in motor oil and feather's but hey, it was his own fault we told him not to open that door."

Jo was going to kick Fargo if he didn't knock it off he'd been pointedly looking between her and Zane all night. She knew Zane was there she'd known it the instant she'd walked into the café, but she couldn't exactly go up and question him with his date sitting there. Hell she didn't want to have to talk to him at all tonight it was bad enough watching him on a date "_it's just another reminder that Grace was right and I need to let go." _She was taking what Grace had said to her seriously she and Ash had been good together.

He understood why she took things seriously but he was also capable of getting her to lighten up once in a while, they were from the same world and understood each other. He also shared her love of weapons and while he wasn't anywhere near as good a marksman as she was he was pretty damn good. Their problem had never been how they felt about each other it had been the war and the fact that it was difficult to actually spend any real time together. While Asher had been assigned permanently to a camp Jo's unit wasn't, she'd gone where she was needed when she was needed. Ash was also back at camp every day you couldn't fly a helicopter after it ran out of fuel, she however was often gone on a mission for long periods of time. She remembered the night they'd both decided just to be friends, things were heating up in the gulf and they needed to concentrate on their jobs. It would have been selfish to do anything else lives depended on them doing their jobs.

Jo just didn't know how to reconcile the idea of restarting something with someone you had loved with still being in love with someone that you meant nothing too. _"God this really should be a no brainer Josephina, what's your problem."_ She went back to listening to Ash and Claudia tell one over the top story after another. _"Claudia's a pretty good match for Fargo really. Good for him."_

"_So Lupo and Mad again, that could make things interesting around here."_ Clayton thought as he glanced over at Donovan. If you'd have asked him when he'd first arrived he'd have said Lupo and Donovan hated each other. Now you'd have to be blind not to see that Donovan had it bad for his boss and just wasn't willing to admit it, sometimes he even thought Lupo returned the feelings but she could be a lot harder to read. He was happy for his friends they had been good for each other Mad always got Lupo to relax and she in turn had kept Mad from taking his stunts a step too far. The only time it had been a problem was when they fought, that was like being stuck in the middle of a nuclear explosion, the only thing a guy could do then was duck for cover and hope not to get caught in the fallout.

Fargo wondered what in the world Jo was waiting for Zane was sitting right there why not just go up and talk to the guy. Mansfield had been angry with him this afternoon over their lack of progress and Jo putting off talking to Zane wasn't going to help anything. Carter giving him a lecture today on how Jo and he should do their jobs had also served to make Fargo's mood less than pleasant. Why couldn't the other three acknowledge that maybe just maybe he and Jo were perfectly capable of handling things without them once in a while.

Fargo was happy for Jo that things seemed to be going well for her and Asher _"But geez that doesn't mean she can't talk to Zane at all."_ Especially when it looked more and more like Zane was in the middle of everything going on. Fargo still believed like the other two that Zane was being set up but maybe he knew something they didn't that would help them. _"Like who he's pissed off enough to do it."_ Noticing that Zane's date had gone off somewhere Fargo decided to try and get Jo to stop putting it off. "Look Zane's alone now, you should go speak with him."

Clayton and Jo looked at each other, this wasn't the best place to interrogate Donovan but Clayton couldn't see what it would hurt. He shrugged at Jo "Go ahead I'll keep Kylie away until you're finished. Might as well get it over with."

Asher looked at Jo his expression showing his curiosity "What's going on that you need to talk to Zane?"

Jo gave him a blank stare, Asher was to observant not to know that something was going down "Nothing important just some issues at work. We're hoping Zane can clear a few things up for us." Turning to the other two she said "I don't really think this is the best place to do this but fine. If he makes a scene I'm blaming you two."

Jo rose from the table knowing that Zane was about to find their conversation extremely suspicious, no way would he just let it go after she was done. Jo had enough problems with Carter sticking himself in the middle of things she didn't need Zane to do it too. She just didn't know how to stop him. She walked over to Zane's table and sat down ignoring the surprised look he gave her.

She started right in before he had a chance to say something stupid that would only piss her off. "I need to ask you a couple of questions and they're going to sound odd. I need you to answer them Zane they're important."

Zane instantly became more alert something was definitely up, Jo wouldn't be there if there wasn't something going on. While she wasn't rude nor had she been exactly avoiding him since he'd kissed her she did keep her distance from him. Zane was grateful for that, he did want to know what their secret was and how she'd gotten the ring but that was it. He knew the ring meant they had been serious and Zane didn't want serious with anyone. Hell up until Asher had shown up he'd been perfectly happy that it appeared Jo wasn't going to try and pursue whatever they'd had before. He simply raised his eyebrows waiting for her to continue. _"This should be interesting."_

Jo took a deep breath before speaking "When was the last time you went into Global in the middle of the night to work on something?"

Zane thought for a moment not sure where she was headed with question "Hmmm, a little over two weeks ago."

"_Ok so before the RSS designs went missing."_ She continued knowing her next few questions where going to make this conversation go downhill fast. "When was the last time you wore that Mariner's jacket of yours?"

This surprised Zane he didn't know what he'd expected but it wasn't a conversation about his clothes "The Tuesday before you left for vacation, why?"

"Are you sure it was the day before I left for vacation and not after?" Jo asked knowing the answer, his memory was so perfect it was freaky.

"Of course I'm sure and again why? What's going on Lupo?" Zane was not happy about where this was going, she was interrogating him for some reason.

"Nothing I'm just clearing up a few facts involving the RSS designs" she told him before continuing "can I see your keys?"

"_Maybe, but that's not all of it."_ He thought to himself before answering her "Yeah sure, here." He reached into his pocket and pulled them out.

Zane's key chain was gone, Jo was getting more and more worried things were going to get pretty bad for Zane pretty quickly. "Where's your key chain?"

Zane had had enough "What in the hell is really going on Jo? What exactly is it you think I've done now? Because I haven't had time to do anything other than work with your _Boyfriend_ on that damn helicopter lately."

Jo noticed the emphasis he'd put on the word boyfriend and blushed. She wasn't about to get into a conversation about Asher with Zane so she kept her tone professional "I'm not accusing you of having done anything, I told you I'm simply following up on the theft in the NWL lab. What happened to your key chain?"

"I lost it and it's pissing me off too, that was a gift from my mother." Zane told her.

Jo knew exactly how much the key chain had meant to him and she'd give it back to him after this was all over but right now it was evidence. She took another breath before asking him the question that was likely to send him over the edge "Zane have you made any extra money lately, I mean besides what Global pays you." She watched his face as he worked out what he thought the last question had meant and he was now angry.

"You think I stole the RSS designs and sold them?" he asked her incredulous _"So much for the truce we'd had going."_

Jo cut him off before he could completely blow up at her "No I don't think you stole the designs, I don't think you've done anything wrong. I'm simply following up on some things that's all."

"Well that's a load of crap but I doubt you're going to tell me what's really up." Zane snapped at her.

Asher had seen the looks on both Jo and Zane's faces and decided to intervene before an all out war broke out between the two of them. The sounds of Glen Miller filled the room as Asher came up to Jo holding out his hand "I believe this is our dance."

Jo was grateful for the distraction and it had been a long time since she'd danced with Ash, she smiled brilliantly up at him letting him lead her onto the makeshift dance floor.

Zane watched Asher and Jo doing some swing dance it was obvious that both had not only had lessons but had danced together before. When Kylie returned to the table his eyes were narrowed and his mouth was set in a grim line. Zane stood up before she had a chance to sit back down telling her "Do you mind if we call it a night, I'm really pretty tired."

Kylie agreed readily she really hadn't had much fun tonight any ways. The two left together, Zane knowing he wasn't likely to get another date with the pretty blond and not really caring if he did.

**Woods just outside Eureka**

Zane woke up feeling groggy, his head was killing him. He took a look around and tried to remember what had happened and how he'd ended up lying on the ground in the middle of nowhere. He'd only had a couple of beers that night, he wasn't much of a drinker he didn't like things that messed with his head. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and tried to think. The last thing he remembered was saying goodbye to Kylie outside of Café Diem then getting on his bike to go home and get some sleep. _"Damn it, what the hell happened? Some idiot must have another out of control experiment going!"_

As he struggled to try and piece together how he had wound up in the woods a flash of memory hit him, at least he thought it was a memory but it didn't make any sense. _"Oh crap! I am in so much trouble here."_ Zane could vaguely remember standing in the clearing he was now sitting in and giving the newly rebuilt prototype of the sky cruiser to someone. _"This can't be right I'd never do that."_ But the more he struggled through the fog of his memories of that night the more certain he became that he had done exactly that. What he couldn't understand was why, why would he give the sky cruiser to a complete stranger and he was sure it had been to a complete stranger. _"Mansfield is sending me to prison for sure this time, do not pass Go do not collect your two hundred dollars. I need to get the hell out of town until I can figure this out."_

Zane was pissed, he was pretty sure someone had messed with him and he was being set up. Recalling all the strange questions Jo had asked him earlier he was afraid he was being set up to take the fall for a lot more than just the sky cruiser. The problem was he could vaguely remember being the one to give the sky cruiser away. Zane made himself stand up it wasn't easy he felt dizzy and disoriented. He needed to get to his bike and get the hell out of Eureka fast before anyone noticed the sky cruiser was missing. Once he had a place to hide he'd figure out who had done this to him and how but he needed to keep Jo and Carter from locking him up to do that. He was on his own here, Jo may have stuck her neck out for him once but there was no way she could or would ignore this. He made his way carefully towards the direction he thought the road would be in.

By the time Zane found the road he was feeling a little steadier and he headed back towards town as quickly as he could. He had no idea what time it was his PDA was missing but he was sure he didn't have a lot of time to disappear before Jo or Cater came after him. Zane heard the loud crack then suddenly he fell to the ground a searing pain ripping across his side.

_Oh, crap I didn't mean to hit him just scare him. That idiot was supposed to take off not go back to town."_ The man was visibly shaken, he needed Zane out of town and everyone focusing their attention on finding him in order for the plan to work. Now he'd screwed that up and accidently shot Donovan, his boss was not going to be happy. He didn't know what else to do but get the hell out of there and let someone else find the body.


End file.
